JAPANESE FIRM AGREES TO SELL US PARK CONCESSION

By
Reuters /
January 10, 1991

WASHINGTON

Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Company has tentatively agreed to sell the concessions at Yosemite National Park that it acquired when it bought MCA Inc., the Washington Post reported Wednesday. Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan, whose department runs the park, had publicly criticized Matsushita last week, saying a foreign company should not operate concessions at a national park.

The MCA subsidiary runs hotels and restaurants at the popular national park in California, which is visited by millions of tourists each year.

The Post said under the agreement Matsushita will sell the subsidiary that operates the concessions to the private nonprofit National Park Foundation for $49.5 million when the concession contract expires in 1993. It said MCA had valued the company at more than $100 million.